We must stop shouting and listen in love

The following piece by the Rev. Mitch Hescox, President and CEO of the Evangelical Environmental Network appeared in the print edition of his home paper, the York Daily Record on Sunday, December 25, 2016, as well as the Centre Daily Times, and is republished here with permission. Rev. Hescox works tirelessly for a fast and fair transition to a clean energy economy; he grew up in a coal family in a coal town, and worked for a coal company, so he’s a particularly interesting and important voice for Pennsylvania.

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward all.” The famous Christian proclamation in Luke’s gospel doesn’t seem as realistic this holiday season, but we need to make it so.

Donald Trump is president-elect of the United States. That’s not going to change for at least four years. It’s time for our country to put aside partisanship and work together as a nation. That doesn’t mean we must agree with everything President Trump’s administration will attempt, any more than we have to agree with the Republican-led Congress or for that matter proposals from the Democrats in Congress. However, it’s time to find common ground where we can; disagree appropriately, and live in light of the vision that the prophet Micah has, “And what does Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

There’s no doubt that America is more divided than at any time since the election of Abraham Lincoln. The rhetoric, vile comments and outright hate seem to spew continually from ideological bastions from both the right and the left, even in the Christian community. As an evangelical leader who has been “condemned to Hell” (and received more than a few death threats) for understanding the scientific measurements and rapid rise in temperature as climate change from the right, and dismissed as an uneducated religious zealot for believing that life begins at conception by the left.